


A Mutual Understanding

by spreadward



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-30
Updated: 2015-07-30
Packaged: 2018-04-12 00:51:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4459025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spreadward/pseuds/spreadward
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Deep inside Gluttony, Edward and Envy come to an understanding.  Edvy if you squint</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Mutual Understanding

**Author's Note:**

> Please review! They keep me writing!

Edward Elric had always been a thorn in Envy's side. At first the pipsqueak had just been a minor annoyance that Father had thrust upon Envy to keep in line. Those days of trailing the young alchemist and his tin-can brother had been hard for Envy. Not that he'd ever have admitted it, but deep down, buried under the layers of anger and resentment there was a deep sense of longing. Longing for the same sorts of connections that he plainly saw Edward give so easily to those around him.

It wasn't that he necessarily longed for any type of connection in particular. It was the idea of someone caring about him that he desired. His resentment would grow stronger each time Edward's bleeding heart would cause the shrimp to recklessly rush to anyone's aid. It made Envy wonder if his family would do the same if he were in trouble.

The homunculi were family only in title, and he knew that. It was well taught to all of them by their father that homunculi did not feel. Attachments to others were frowned upon. They were strictly there to follow his orders and to ensure his plans all came to fruition. But Envy was different. He knew he was, even though on the surface he didn't seem to be. 

His desire for the affections of another never stopped him from performing his duties or from enjoying the thrill of the kill. He still detested humans as much as ever. Probably even more so once his jealousy of their ease of loving each other reared its ugly head. Causing them anguish was a fitting revenge for him. He was like a child throwing a tantrum in that regard. If he couldn't have what he wanted then he would destroy it for others, all with a twisted smile on his face as they pleaded for his mercy.

He was thinking of this as he trudged through the endless lake of blood that covered the pit that was Gluttony's stomach. He'd never thought the smell of blood would turn his stomach the way it was now, and for the first time in his life he wished he never had to smell the stench of it ever again. 

Time flowed differently in that small world inside the homunculus. To Envy, it felt as if he were walking for hours before his ears picked up the faint traces of Edward's voice, and there was a small stirring in his chest. At least he wasn't here alone. He adjusted his path accordingly, followed the faint sounds of conversation he was picking up from Edward and that Xingese brat. What was his name? Ping? Envy didn't really care. 

He didn't stop until his presence was detected by the two humans he was seeking. He was posed just outside the ring of light created by the fire the two had built, posed defensively, ready to be attacked. It was an excruciatingly long few seconds before Edward's voice rang out amongst the silence, and Envy noted a brief flash of some unknown emotion when he heard it.

"I know you're there, Envy."

The fire they'd built and settled around looked warm and inviting, and sensing no attack coming he relaxed his defensive posture and hesitantly stepped into the light. "You two brats weren't exactly hard to find, you know. If you were trying to hide from me, you did a real shit job of it."

Edward's eyes were fixed on him, and he felt slightly uncomfortable as those calculating orbs stared him down, made him shift his weight to his other foot to displace his restlessness. There was no doubt that even Edward would be able to sense his nervousness.

The fire crackled softly, and Envy suddenly realized just how cold he felt. But he didn't dare move for fear of sending the humans before him into attack, and Edward's gaze was still locked on him, holding him in place almost menacingly. 

When the shrimp finally spoke, it wasn't what Envy was expecting to hear. "Do you know the way out of here?"

He shifted his weight once more, rested a hand on his hip and took and few steps closer to them, a forced look of indifference on his face. "There isn't a way out." He could practically smell their reaction to that news, even over the odor of the stale blood he was still standing in.

Neither of them responded to him. And now even Edward's eyes had lost a bit of their shine, and Envy noted oddly that he felt even colder when the alchemist's eyes turned away from him. He turned his own gaze to the small fire, crackling softly with an inviting glow of heat and he hesitantly stepped towards it, but stopped before his feet hit solid ground. His body had never been comfortable in the cold. It wasn't that he couldn't survive it. He could walk barefoot through snow and be just fine, but the bitter bite of ice and coldness always made him uncomfortable and achy. It was harder for him to concentrate on keeping up his form as well, not by much, but just enough that he could note the change. 

He brought his hands up, rubbed them slowly up and down his upper arms, trying to create some warmth for himself without being too conspicuous about it. Edward, however, hadn't missed the action.

"Are you cold? If you can keep yourself from being a complete asshole, you can sit with us." Envy froze at that, and was about to spit out some sarcastic retort but the Xingese brat beat him to it.

"You can't be serious, Edward. He's one of those monsters that caused this whole mess." Envy felt his anger begin to bubble to the surface and he balled his fists tightly, clenched his teeth as an angry grimace began to grow on his face. 'Monster.' That was one word that always stung him in ways he knew it shouldn't. His unleashed form was nothing pretty to look at, he knew that. But he always worked so hard to hide that part of himself, had experimented for decades to find the perfect combination of features that created his human form. Perfectly androgynous, both cute and sexy at the same time. All because 'monster' was something he'd never wanted to be called again.

Edward spoke again. "We're going to die here. There's no point fighting and speeding that up." The words brought Envy to attention, and his posture relaxed bit. Still, he didn't move any closer to them. Edward sounded defeated, his voice flat and gaze directed to the floor and Envy suddenly realized that death was a very real, very permanent end to humans. It must have been hard for Edward to accept that he had failed his life mission and abandoned his brother forever in an unfeeling, cold metal prison. .

Ling had gone mostly quiet at this point, the only sounds coming from him being soft grumblings of annoyance. Envy was wary of him. While he knew he could defeat him if he had to, it would still end up with him being hurt in some way, and like the cold, pain was another thing he detested. 

Edward glanced up at him with a raised eyebrow, and he took that as an invitation to come closer. He came far enough that he could feel the comforting warmth of the fire against his skin, yet sat as far from the two humans as possible. He wasn't a part of their group. He was alone.

He didn't keep track of how long the three of them sat there in silence. He'd mostly shut himself off, had gone into an almost catatonic stillness as he stared ahead at nothing and waited for a death he would never be blessed to achieve for himself. He wondered how long it would take for his companions to waste away to nothing, wondered if it would be worth the effort to attempt to put them out of their misery before the pain of dehydration and hunger drove them mad. But Envy wasn't that merciful. They deserved to suffer for dragging him here and he would enjoy every damn second of it. 

The silence was disrupted suddenly by an animalistic howl of anger from the blonde seated across the fire, and by the time Envy looked up at him, he had both hands, flesh and metal, gripped in his blonde locks in frustration. It was a tantrum that could have rivaled one of Envy's own. Edward thrashed about, stood and set his mind to screaming nonsense obscenities while kicking rocks as hard as he could, sending them flying off into the distance, the only hint as to their fate being the splash made when they met the ocean of blood that covered the floor. 

Envy watched him with disinterest. Any other time it would have been funny, but the predicament in which they'd found themselves in left his stomach in knots, and laughing was the last thing he wanted to be doing. He scooted closer to the fire, and drew his knees up to his chest. For some reason, seeing Edward lose it at their hopelessness made him feel worse about the situation.

It was Ling who stood and finally attempted to calm the pipsqueak. He rested a hand on his shoulder and Edward went quiet, and Envy was certain the boy was going to burst into tears. It surprised him that he didn't and by the time he realized that the shorty was stomping towards him it was too late to try and flee. 

Edward grabbed a fist full of Envy's hair, and hauled him up to his feet, with the sin cursing loudly in indignation at the treatment. Edward obviously didn't give a rat’s ass about Envy’s discomfort. He wrenched Envy’s face up, forced him to look at him and the anger coupled with terror that shone in his eyes was almost frightening.

"Where the fuck are we?! I know you know!" And he was right. Envy did know where they were. He took a moment to try and think how to explain it, but Edward shook him, impatiently. Envy growled dangerously at the treatment, and wrenched himself away from the young alchemist, ignored the ache in his scalp from the hairs that he’d lost from being shook around. 

"We're inside Gluttony. I thought that much was obvious to you idiots. Unless you already forgot we were swallowed!"

Envy was just quick enough to dodge a punch. "Don’t fuck with me! There’s no way his stomach is this huge! There’s more to it than that! What aren’t you saying?"

Another punch came flying towards Envy’s face. "I'm not telling you shit if you keep trying to fucking hit me!" He screamed back at him as he sidestepped away from Edward's incoming automail limb.

Edward didn't stop. It was as if his desperation at the scenario was coming to a head and the only way he could deal with it was to beat the shit out of the percieved enemy. Envy managed to dodge the majority of the blows, though he had to admit that Fullmetal had a pretty mean right hook. The only thing that kept him from just attacking him back was the knowledge that killing him would mean Envy would be alone. For a long damn time.

It didn't take long for his foe to tire out. He noticed that his moves were sloppier, and his breathing heavy, with thick beads of sweat rolling down his forehead. Finally the alchemist stopped, and bent over, retched loudly from the exertion and gravity of the situation.

Envy felt like he was witnessing extremely private as he watched the young human slowly catch his breath. He spoke after Edward flopped back onto the ground in exhaustion. "Father made Gluttony because he was trying to bypass the Gate." He said, slowly, cautiously. When Edward made no effort to even reply he continued. "He wanted to create his own door so he could reach the other side without facing the Truth." He paused again, and Edward lifted his head, looked straight into his eyes. 

"We're inside the gate?" Edward's face was twisted in an odd mixture of fear and bewilderment and Envy wasn't sure if either were a good thing. 

"No. It was a failure. He just ended up making a false door. This place is inside Gluttony and it mimics the Gate, works the same way, but it was still a failure." He frowned and backed away from Edward, not trusting him to not attack him over learning this new information.   
Edward had gone quiet, was obviously soaking up the new information that Envy had given him. Envy still had his guard up, not knowing what to expect from him. “If it works like the Gate we can use alchemy to open it again.” 

Envy had to think about that. It would make sense after all. “You’d probably have to perform human transmutation.” He speculated, but Edward frowned. 

“The toll would be too great to do that. I’d need a Philosopher’s Stone.” His face fell again, and Envy frowned. He had a Stone at his core, but that was information he wasn't supposed to share with humans. However, it would get him out of here, and away from this thick stench of blood, and he’d never have to worry about the stupid and confusing feelings he was having again. 

“I have one.” He said, nonchalantly, in a way that made it sound as if it wasn’t something he cared much about. Truly, he didn’t think much about his stone. It was a part of him, yes, but in the same way a human’s heart was; always beating but rarely considered.

He watched as Edward’s eyes widened, and he crossed his arms over his chest, frowned at him. “Though I should let you suffer here, for making my life difficult.” 

He was startled by Ling letting out an outburst of frustration. He’d forgotten he was even here, but he felt a deep rage settle over him at his words. “You would say something like that, you monster! You’d let us all die here just to prove a point!” 

Envy went rigid at the insult, his fists clenching tightly as he felt pure hatred overtake him. How dare that human call him that again? Edward hadn’t said anything, and was about to, but Envy cut him off before he could get a word out. “You want to see a monster, you fucking brat? I’ll show you a monster.” His tone was low and dangerous, almost a growl. 

His transformation was quick; his arms shot out in front of him, his pale skin turning a putrid shade of green, elongating as his body exploded into the wailing, bubbling faces of the souls composing his core. He roared angrily as he fell forward onto his front limbs, a loud squelching sound echoing through the air as his middle spat out two sets of limbs. His tail, long and snake like erupted out behind him, landing in the lake of blood and sending thick globules of the deep red liquid splashing into the air. 

He released a deafening roar, sending the wailing faces that covered his body into panicked screaming. Their cries for help just made his insides clench up as a sweet, welcomed chill of excitement coursed through his veins. Their misery a fuel for his anger. 

His rage was directed towards Ling, a frenzied desire to spill his blood, to disfigure him so that he was the monster. He charged forward, his intention to mutilate the Xingese prince. He wasn't fast enough to hit his target, but the weight of his body crashing down into the liquid below him sent a wave of the blood outward in all directions, making the sick, iron rich scent of blood waft high into the air. 

He charged a second time, blinded by his pure rage, but this time his face made contact with Edward's automail fist, right against his nose. He snorted, indignantly at the feeling, and swiped his front paw in front of him, to slap Edward out of his way. It wasn't Ed he was angry at. It wasn't Ed who had twice called him a monster. It wasn't Ed that had brought out his inner beast.

But it was Ed who was attacking him now, and he didn't appreciate the blistering pain of being stabbed through his foot by an automail blade. He turned his attention to the blonde, hissed out through bared teeth. "Stay out of this, Elric! I said it before and I'll say it again! 'I don't want to fight you!'" With a swipe of his paw, he sent the alchemist flying backward and turned his attention back to Ling, who was preparing an attack of his own. Envy roared out an ear-splitting scream of fury, reared up again and crashed his weight down in front of Ling, sending him flying backwards in a wave of blood. 

 

Edward leapt toward him, and Envy scrambled to back up enough so that his blade wouldn't end up in his flesh again. He snarled at him, as Edward screamed. "Stop this, Envy! I don't want to have to kill you!" As if he even could. The thought was laughable. 

He lifted a paw, used it to shove the alchemist out of his way so he could charge at Ling once more. The prince wasn't afraid, however, and was charging right back, his intent clearly to kill the giant homunculus before him. 

Envy jumped up, intending to crush the prince under his massive weight, but he was outsmarted as Ling jumped up at the last moment. Ling’s aim was precise, and Envy shrieked in agony as his eye exploded, sending the lost souls on his body into a symphony of howls along with him. The pain incapacitated him momentarily, his only defense was to flail in hopes that it would protect him as his body healed his wounds, but that small moment was enough for Ling to get in another painful hit, this time landing inside his other eye, blinding him. 

He was too focused on the pain and the sounds of thousands of screaming voices to hear what was happening around him, but as the pain eased up, he realized he was no longer being attacked and he spun around, frantically searching for his foe.

Edward had the prince pinned beneath him, his automail blade against his neck, a look of fury on his face. He was screaming at the other human, and Envy froze. His brain raced as he tried to come to a reasonable excuse for Edward defending him; he who deserved no second chances, but his thoughts were drowned out by Edward's voice. 

"Are you fucking insane!?" Envy was impressed that Edward's rage seemed to match his own in ferocity. "The hell are you pciking fights with our only hope getting home!?" Envy let out a loud laugh and it echoed maliciously around them. Edward shot him a glare before turning back towards Ling, his tone gone dark, and threatening. "I didn’t come all this way to die here because you had to pick a fight with Envy!"

Envy's laughter still filled up the air around them, while the souls bubbling up on his skin continued to wail in misery. By the time he'd calmed himself enough to look back at the two humans, Edward was standing and facing him, a strong frown chiseled onto his face. Envy noted that behind Ed’s frown, his eyes shone with unease.”Those... things on you are souls from the stone." Envy chuckled deeply, lowered his massive body into a lying down position, his tail wrapping around his body, and trapping Edward in front of him with its mighty girth. 

"Always the little genius, aren't you? I wonder how often that gets you in trouble." His breath coming from his nostrils blew Ed's hair back, but the alchemist either didn't notice, didn't care or ignored it. "Does it come natural to you? Always being right?" He chuckled dangerously, crossed his arms in front of him, turned his head so that his multi-irised eye was fixed on the teen. 

Edward blanched momentarily, his eyes betraying him to glance at the rolling pile of souls desperately begging for their freedom. Envy noted in the back of his mind how disgusted Edward looked at him, and how how, for some reason, that disgust towards him bothered him. 

"Well? Aren't you going to use it? Don't you want to get back home? Back to your brother?" He could tell that the very idea was troubling the teen, and in a way it troubled him as well. Edward could easily destroy him this way, by using all the power in his stone. He was certain that Edward was aware of that fact. He also was aware that he had limited choices in the matter. He could refuse to be any help, which would trap him here forever, alone; he could offer help and be killed in the process; or he could trust Edward to spare him and send him home as well. 

"This is wrong. I can’t sacrifice human souls." Edward's looked crestfallen as he spoke and Envy laughed out at him.

"Human souls? Is that what you think these are? They're just energy. They don't even remember being alive. Tell me, my dear Edward, when you build a fire do you feel remorseful for the tree that gave you the wood? Or for the animals that gave you your food? It's the same thing." He could see the gears turning in Ed’s head. 

"Why’re you helping me?" The teen crossed his arms, still frowning deeply. Envy leaned his massive head closer to him, and was slightly surprised that Ed didn’t shrink away from him. He wasn’t sure how he felt about Edward not being afraid of him, even in this form. “I’m your enemy.”

A low chuckle rumbled through Envy’s chest, and he leaned even closer, so that his nose was almost touching the alchemist. He spoke low, almost a whisper. “Do you know what it’s like to be lonely, Pipsqueek?” He watched as Ed’s eyes widened, like the concept was something he’d never thought could be possible. But his frown quickly softened in what looked to be understanding, and he reached out with one hand, his flesh one, Envy observed, and rested it on Envy’s nose. 

Time froze for the two as human and homunculus shared a brief moment of mutual understanding of the ache of loneliness, and it was quickly halted when Edward spoke, his voice dry and bare. "I'm sorry." Envy could hear the pity behind it, but instead of feeling angry, he felt more relieved that he was understood, and not judged, even though the one who finally gave that to him was, in fact, his enemy. 

Edward lightly patted Envy's nose before he removed his hand, and Envy lifted his tail, this time gently, so as to not disturb the sea of blood they stood in. He closed his eyes, put his faith in his human enemy to not destroy him. 

When Edward clapped his hands and placed his palms on his nose once more, and the crackle of alchemic energy filled his ears and made his skin tingle, he silently both cursed and thanked Edward Elric. Thanked him for the understanding of his plight, and cursed him for creating a new one: a confusing sort of longing to stay at his side.


End file.
